Community notes December 9th

Tidy Towns Report 2023 Contd.

Throughout the village the shopfronts provided a lovely selection of well-maintained buildings with floral displays.The houses were a delight to view, all painted in varying colours but all blending tastefully and kept in immaculate condition. It was so pleasing to see such a well-kept Garda Station with flowering window boxes. Visitors are no doubt enthralled as they wander around the town and with good reason. It would be ideal to get the overhead wires removed and hopefully one day the funds will be available for Cork County Council to carry this out.

The Railway Park is very well maintained and the lighting must be a great help especially in the dark Winter months.The photo plaques were much enjoyed.

The old telephone box which has been relocated looks very well. Many of these have been converted in to book swaps, seeds swaps and other Community based ideas. The fact that you have the original telephone is important and you are right to preserve it. It is suggested that you put a suitable notice on the outside explaining this. The notice on the inside is hard to read and a little stark.

In general, the streetscapes and public areas were very well maintained and there was much evidence of new street furniture and planters, and the displays of vintage farm machinery. One very large and imposing advertising on the wall above the St Molaga sculpture seems very out of place in this village. The owner of the advertisement might be willing to take it down after a certain period of time in order to retain the overall aesthetic of the village.All of the signposts, including the visitor attraction finger posts were in excellent condition, clean and easily legible.The bi-lingual aspect is most important and you are to be commended for ensuring that all signposts are in both languages.

The new mural on Mill Hill is colourful and striking showing the Catholic Church and the Abbey. Congratulations to the artist, it certainly brightens up the area.

Timoleague is clearly a proud village with a swell of community spirited residents who take pride in their village and it shows.

Green Spaces and Landscaping

The beautiful Magnolias and Hydrangeas in the grounds of the Catholic church are very well presented. There is however a lot of neatly cut grass and one wonders if perhaps some of this could be left as a wildflower area in the future.It will be interesting to know where the trees received from Trees for Communities are planted in future submissions.One of the trees along the river walk opposite the picnic area has some rather dodgy looking staking and ties and ould do with a little re-staking.

The new recycled plastic planters, funded by an annual grant from Pobal were noted in place on Main St and at the statue of St Patrick and will no doubt be planted up shortly. Seasonal planting is very lovely when in season, however it is now recommended that more perennial planting is used to give year- round effect which is less labour intensive and more pollinator friendly. There are some excellent tips and suggestions on the pollinators.ie website

including examples of perennial planting schemes.Valerian was growing wild and in full flower on the walls of the Church of the Ascension providing valuable pollen and it was cheering to see that it has been left to flower.

Festival AGM

Timoleague Harvest Festival held its annual general meeting at The Community Hall on Tuesday night last. As always, a large crowd was present. Festival chairperson Sean Deasy welcomed everybody and was loud in his praise of the great voluntary work undertaken in the lead up to and during the festival. He was especially thankful to his fellow officers for their input and for making his job more manageable. He appealed for more volunteers during festival week so that the workload could be distributed evenly. He thanked the people of the village for being so welcoming and supportive of all the festival events throughout the week. Festival treasurer Miriam Hodnett gave a detailed account of the income and expenditure associated with the festival and the bottom line showed a well- earned surplus which was a huge vote of confidence for all involved.

This year Timoleague Harvest Festival celebrated its 50^th anniversary and Sean remembered all those who helped in any way during those fifty years. Little did the pioneering committee of 1973 think that the festival would grow and develop and become one of the leading festivals in the county.

A general discussion took place and a number of new ideas for enhancing the festival further were debated. The election of officers for 2024 resulted as follows: Chairperson: Sean Deasy, Vice- Chairperson: Valda Smith; Secretary: Josephene Kelly; Assistant Secretary: Rebecca Earley; Treasurer: Miriam Hodnett.